The Metropolitan Opera: Stories of the Great Operas

xxxii, 547 pp. Foreword by James Levine, introduction by Peter Allen. Here at last is the definitive opera story collection, the only one now authorized by the Metropolitan Opera. Written by the associate editor of Opera News magazine, the volume includes the complete plots of 150 different operas, biographical information on all of the 72 composers represented, easy access to the stories through both a table of contents and an index, and a foreword by Peter Allen.